CFB Week 10: Saturday picks, East Carolina needs to stay perfect

East Carolina QB Shane Carden has a once in a lifetime chance to lead the Pirates on a big bowl run,

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Only 6 times in the 50-year football history of East Carolina has the team been ranked, with the best ever season coming as an 11-1 Peace Bowl win in 1991 that had the team finish ranked #9 overall.  With its only loss coming narrowly to South Carolina early in the year, the Pirates are slowly but surely positioning themselves for a chance not only at the AAC title, but for a true shot at the College Football Playoffs if they can just win out. After all – there are only 3 undefeated teams left in football, and less than 20 with only 1 loss – and all of those numbers can change without East Carolina missing a beat.

Here are the picks for Week 10 of college football:

#24 Duke over Pittsburgh – Next to Florida State, Duke is undoubtedly the best team in the ACC and should roll over Pitt if they expect a title rematch with their bitter rivals.

#18 Oklahoma over Iowa State – It has not been the season the Sooners wanted after starting #4 in the polls, but that shouldn’t stop Bob Stoops’ team from rolling over the 2-5 Cyclones.

#23 East Carolina over Temple – With a game against Cincinnati next week being the only game against a top QB in the conference, don’t be surprised if East Carolina wins big.

#15 Nebraska over Purdue – Ameer Abdullah is a monster, and monsters tend to feed on Big 10 conference cellar dwellers.

#11 Georgia over Florida – Georgia has been nearly unbeatable and in fact only lost one game due to some near-misses. For a team with as many flaws as the Florida Gators, it’s hard to imagine them finding the answer that Missouri, Clemson and Arkansas couldn’t find.

#7 TCU over #20 West Virginia – In a battle of explosive offenses, the team with the better QB or better defense wins.  Since TCU has both of those, TCU should win and win big.

#13 Baylor over Kansas – The Bears have been seething since losing to West Virginia and will take out that patient frustration on a hopeless Kansas team.

#3 Auburn over #4 Ole Miss – Better coaching will prevail as Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn leads a mistake-free Tigers offense to a road upset over the Rebels and brings the SEC title decider back to the Iron Bowl.

#1 Mississippi State over Arkansas – On the road this game would be harder to predict, but within the safe confines of the Mississippi State home crowd, the undefeated Bulldogs should continue to roll on their way to the Egg Bowl against Ole Miss.

#5 Oregon over Stanford – Marcus Mariotta is playing incredible football and has the Ducks back in the playoff hunt.  A win this week virtually guarantees the Ducks a coveted top-4 ranking next week.  They’ll throw everything at Stanford to make sure they get the win.

Oklahoma State over #9 Kansas State – Going with the upset here.  Oklahoma State has played well this season despite a few blowout losses, but their close game to Florida State really showed that this team is capable of pulling off some huge upsets if they can just play a mistake-free game.

#16 Ohio State over Illinois – This will be the tune-up game before the fateful matchup with Michigan State which will likely determine the Big 10 champion.

#10 Notre Dame over Navy – The Fighting Irish lost a close one to FSU last week, but now will be able to get back on track against Navy as they try to sneak back into the College Football Playoff hunt.

#22 UCLA over #12 Arizona – Arizona is the only team this year to get a win over Oregon QB Marcus Mariotta, but the Bruins have much better coaching and have a QB that is just as good as Mariotta.

#17 Utah over #14 Arizona State – The Sun Devils have quietly been one of the most complete teams in the Pac-12, with their only loss coming to UCLA. But Utah’s only loss was by one-point and they have an explosive offense that has dropped 50+ points on two opponents this season.